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Re: KNX
Schroedingers Cat said:
It sounds like the pattern is way out of whack, or they are running nondirectional. .
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My guess is the former, but I wouldn't be totally surprised if it turned out to be the latter. And to add to what formula72 was saying, I also noticed that KNX seemed to be at least slightly weaker on my trip to So-Cal and adjacent areas in May.

Now here's my possibly stupid question (it wouldn't be my first one!). Could it be that what we're seeing (hearing) with stations turning up where they shouldn't be, along with patterns out of whack, and/or some big signals not being quite so big anymore all have to do with the combination of the pandemic, severe financial constraints? And perhaps a labor shortage among engineers qualified to fix or maintain transmitterers? Against the backdrop of apathy on the part of FCC/CRTC regulators as well as the listening public? I'm sure there are some intentional cheaters out there....as well as listeners and broadcasters complaining about those, but I'm becoming increasingly inclined to think that the situation has more to do with an increasingly widespread lack of interest,
 
cyberdad said:
Re: KNX

My guess is the former, but I wouldn't be totally surprised if it turned out to be the latter. And to add to what formula72 was saying, I also noticed that KNX seemed to be at least slightly weaker on my trip to So-Cal and adjacent areas in May.

Now here's my possibly stupid question (it wouldn't be my first one!). Could it be that what we're seeing (hearing) with stations turning up where they shouldn't be, along with patterns out of whack, and/or some big signals not being quite so big anymore all have to do with the combination of the pandemic, severe financial constraints? And perhaps a labor shortage among engineers qualified to fix or maintain transmitterers? Against the backdrop of apathy on the part of FCC/CRTC regulators as well as the listening public? I'm sure there are some intentional cheaters out there....as well as listeners and broadcasters complaining about those, but I'm becoming increasingly inclined to think that the situation has more to do with an increasingly widespread lack of interest,
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D) All of the above.

It just seems like people are giving up on AM in particular, and FM and radio in general are not far behind. In my travels in Michigan, NUMEROUS FMs are off the air, or in "running legal" mode with STA, tape loops, and TOH ID to keep their licenses. Most of the off the air AMs have turned in their licenses already.
 
asugeorge1 said:
That is what I have experienced as well during my travels up the California coast! CFAX is definitely not playing by the rules as they should not be heard anywhere near San Jose, California. If you can hear them in San Jose, you could probably hear them further south in KNX’s sky wave cancellation zone in Central California.
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And likely they know that KNX could not care less about its coverage outside the immediate LA metro area, so even if they discovered that CFAX was out of parameters, they probably would not spend money on engineering and legal to complain.
 
cyberdad said:
And perhaps a labor shortage among engineers qualified to fix or maintain transmitterers? Against the backdrop of apathy on the part of FCC/CRTC regulators as well as the listening public? I'm sure there are some intentional cheaters out there....as well as listeners and broadcasters complaining about those, but I'm becoming increasingly inclined to think that the situation has more to do with an increasingly widespread lack of interest,
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I believe you're right on target. Few stations care anymore and don't bother to complain.
 
I didn't mention it before, but from what I had suspected and been told, there are many engineers who don't know much about AM transmitters, and with newer transmitters, it's computer chip and software troubleshooting and calling technical support, spending all night and even having to go off the air until rescued by an old-timer that's still alive and well enough to fix it, when they can get them to come out and troubleshoot the AM transmitters and DAs. In the meantime, hobbling along on low power nondirectional. Many of the knowledgeable old-timer AM and even FM transmitter engineers have died, frankly and sadly and not to make light of it.
 
New pre-sunrise catch for me this morning. WFCV from Fort Wayne, IN on 1090. 2.5kw daytime, 1kw CH using a marble-shooter pattern favorable to my location. I'm not sure which power they were using, but the signal was good. Blowing out KAAY and everything else on the channel. What I heard was the sign on which contained a positive ID at a little after 5am CDT. Distance was 179 miles.

This was my second new Fort Wayne catch within the last couple of months (following WGL), which is a little surprising. But the path to Northeast Indiana was really good this morning. WOWO was absolutely blasting right after they powered up at sunrise.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
I didn't mention it before, but from what I had suspected and been told, there are many engineers who don't know much about AM transmitters, and with newer transmitters, it's computer chip and software troubleshooting and calling technical support, spending all night and even having to go off the air until rescued by an old-timer that's still alive and well enough to fix it, when they can get them to come out and troubleshoot the AM transmitters and DAs. In the meantime, hobbling along on low power nondirectional. Many of the knowledgeable old-timer AM and even FM transmitter engineers have died, frankly and sadly and not to make light of it.
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You're far more knowledgeable about this stuff than me, but it seems to be very plausible.
 
I don't think you can beat engineers who learned about Basic Electronics when Vaccuum Tubes transitioned over to Solid State, and know both. Somebody who still keeps an old RCA Tube Manual and a bunch of FORTRAN programming books. And degreed engineers who studied a LOT of Physics and Mathematics are even better! But those people tend to gravitate to higher callings and salaries than radio usually does. And I think being an AM FM TV DXer is a significant advantage to understand allotments and classes of stations and frequency searches and basic FCC rules from an early age is best for application consulting. A person who remembers the legacy call letters from hearing them on the air! And knows you have to protect the Skywave of Class A AMs.
 
I think that because of the various listening options these days, people are very unwilling to listen to radio stations that fade out periodically. Since even the best AM skywave tends to fade occasionally, realistically the audience for any skywave signal is going to be small in my opinion. Hence radio stations are only really interested in skywave signals if they interfere with their line-of-sight audience and most of these power violators are going to be low-priority.

But honestly, I'm glad there are so many violators out there. Most of my new AM stations are logged when I'm away from my apartment... the new ones I get from home nowadays tend to be the ones that seem to be operating at daytime power at night. I've had some pretty extreme examples, where they had some official power like 10 watts yet I heard them just fine 200 miles away.
 
Receive these regularly (every 10kHz), after sunset, from my location outside Allentown PA. Clear channel is great:

740 AM, CFZM, Toronto
750 AM, WSB, Atlanta
760 AM, WJR, Detroit
770 AM, WABC, NYC
780 AM, WBBM, Chicago
790 AM, WAEB, Allentown, PA. My local
 
A couple of new catches this morning before local sunrise on 1450. Between 5:00 and 5:30am. First to break through the pack was WFMB from Springfield, IL (ex WCVS). ESPN radio on top for about five minutes. (186 miles) Then about ten minutes of typical graveyard channel slop followed by WRCO from Richland Center, WI (133 miles) with oldies. Also about five minutes, but slightly weaker than WFMB had been. Radio was the C Crane skywave oriented north-south. Both stations 1kw.
 
For those of you anxiously awaiting the new DX season, it may come sooner than you think. I noticed a small but definite amount of skywave today in Chicago... at 9:45 AM (about 4 hours after sunrise). I've never had this happen midsummer before. I was getting some of the "usual suspects", namely KCJJ 1630, KXEL 1540, and something on 1600 which could have been KGYM. Then at 5PM I went right up to the lakeshore and there was once again some (albeit small) amount of skywave. I believe I even got a new station. On 1570 there was a religious station "Three <fading> Network", which was very likely WGLL in Auburn, Indiana (Three Angels Broadcasting Network), which would be a new one for me.
 
MichaelTheZ said:
For those of you anxiously awaiting the new DX season, it may come sooner than you think. I noticed a small but definite amount of skywave today in Chicago... at 9:45 AM (about 4 hours after sunrise). I've never had this happen midsummer before. I was getting some of the "usual suspects", namely KCJJ 1630, KXEL 1540, and something on 1600 which could have been KGYM. Then at 5PM I went right up to the lakeshore and there was once again some (albeit small) amount of skywave. I believe I even got a new station. On 1570 there was a religious station "Three <fading> Network", which was very likely WGLL in Auburn, Indiana (Three Angels Broadcasting Network), which would be a new one for me.
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Nice. I don't remember experiencing this in early August.
 
radioman148 said:
Nice. I don't remember experiencing this in early August.
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Yes, good stuff. KXEL is one of my "go-to" stations to see if daytime skywave might be out there. I've also heard KGYM/KCRG and KCRG, but those two only in winter.

IME, daytime skywave during summer is definitely rare. But I HAVE experienced it before. A few exmples...

670: WSCR in northwest Minnesota
700: WLW in Wisconsin Dells, WI
780: WBBM in London, ON

Of course these are all blowtorches, but note that they're all low on the dial. Also, I heard all of these on car radios. As is typical
with daytime skywave, the signal in all three cases was steady with minimal fading.

The biggest shocker for was WBBM. One morning around 11am before streaming audio via cellphones. I had heard news reports of severe weather moving through the Chicago area on a network newscast, So I dialed up WBBM on the odd chance it would be there.....and to my astonishment, it was! I was able to follow the strorms' progress for a little over a half hour. (Fortunately our home came through unscathed).
 
cyberdad said:
Yes, good stuff. KXEL is one of my "go-to" stations to see if daytime skywave might be out there. I've also heard KGYM/KCRG and KCRG, but those two only in winter.

IME, daytime skywave during summer is definitely rare. But I HAVE experienced it before. A few exmples...

670: WSCR in northwest Minnesota
700: WLW in Wisconsin Dells, WI
780: WBBM in London, ON

Of course these are all blowtorches, but note that they're all low on the dial. Also, I heard all of these on car radios. As is typical
with daytime skywave, the signal in all three cases was steady with minimal fading.

The biggest shocker for was WBBM. One morning around 11am before streaming audio via cellphones. I had heard news reports of severe weather moving through the Chicago area on a network newscast, So I dialed up WBBM on the odd chance it would be there.....and to my astonishment, it was! I was able to follow the strorms' progress for a little over a half hour. (Fortunately our home came through unscathed).
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, the only chicago station ive heard in Alaska is WYLL 1160

The only detroit station is WWJ 950
 


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